Journalist, entrepreneur and marketing firm founder. I write about higher ed and early career issues. Pithily. I was pontificating about Millennials and Millennial culture back when they were still known as Gen Y.

Why Big Retail Is Running Scared Of The Millennial Generation

In addition to attitudes about the buying experience, there’s also the distinct possibility that having had to practice fiscal austerity during their formative buying years will have a long-lasting effect on Gen Y’s psyche. Even now, they’re more likely than older generations to both support an expansion of government and its programs – a New Deal mentality perhaps? – and to believe that you ”can’t be too careful” when dealing with people, according to the Pew Research Center. These findings are echoed in a National Bureau of Economic Research paper by Giuliano and Spilimbergo that looked at 18- 25 year-olds who came of age during economic downturns over the last 30 years. “We find that individuals experiencing recessions during the formative years believe that luck rather than effort is the most important driver of individual success, support more government redistribution, and have less confidence in institutions,” they write.

Lack of cash, skepticism about big business, a preference for customized products and heuristic purchasing experiences and possibly a lifelong tendency toward scrimping? Retailers have a right to be nervous about the Millennial market.

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Perhaps indeed, the market has changed. Money is in the hands of the baby boomer generation. Generation whY are unmotivated, lazy, and devoid of accountability. Big retail needs to realize that appealing to a generation that struggles to get out of bed more than 10 minutes before work is a loser.

Ah yes the Boomer generation. They are so motivated…to run up an out of control national debt, wreck the economy, than expect later generations to support them in their twilight years as they were unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to fund their entitlement programs. Now you wonder why your children are “devoid of accountability.”

A bigger reason to be concerned isn’t their buying power, its their lack of understanding good, better and best as I wrote in this article http://www.retaildoc.com/blog/retail-generation-gap-why-premium-brands-are-stuck/ and special report.

The older generation still has money to spend and the inclination to seek out options, unless the younger generation working in retail understands this, you’ll get the experience I had at an Apple store recently when I asked to buy a larger internal hard drive, “Oh, don’t buy it from us, go to Newegg – they’re cheaper.” Geez

The response you received at the Apple store shed far more light on millenials (full disclosure, I am one) than your comparison to previous generations. The reason the employee told you to go to Newegg is twofold:

One, as the low man on the totem pole he doesn’t have any particular loyalty to Apple. Why should he? He’s probably deep in debt and is just trying to make ends meet as the article states. He’s trying to help you (the customer) by getting you what you want cheaper. Technically he’s doing his best to provide good customer service.

Why would he see suggesting the competition as good customer service? (He probably sees you as a person and not a sale. Weird!)

But really, I think it’s because of the second reason he made a comment to you -

Newegg is a website primarily for people who build computers in their spare time and order parts cheaper than large box retailers. The millenial knows that if you want the ‘best’, you’re not going to go brand shopping. You’re going to find out what WORKS best by doing some research yourself or asking your network and finding a specialist. You may even end up doing things yourself.

The new generation is a generation of innovators and makers, but it seems like every time I read an article about them it has to do with how screwed or lazy we are. I know this isn’t anything new, but it’s pretty frustrating reading when you know you’ll probably spend the rest of your life cleaning up the planet that has been ground under the heel of our parents for ‘progress’.

I believe I have an eagle-eye view on some of the purchasing patterns brought up because I work in Mens Better Sports area (specifically Nautica) of a major Southeastern retailer. While career-wise I consider myself an under-employed exec asst/PA, I previously worked in moderate clothing area and big and tall as well.

Straight up, Polo still rules the roost, Vineyard Vines brand has done great numbers, Tommy Bahama hits the somewhat older buyer, and Nautica, with good product reputation and a basic price set about 40% less than those 3 looks like a bargain. In discussing volume of returns after Christmas, VV person said she didn’t get near the load others did, and her reasoning was that the people RECEIVING it *didn’t care* how much it cost, so it wasn’t returned. Its a strong seller in our store because its colorful and parents/others know ‘kids’ (say 15-32) want it. Unless color is dramatically wrong, they keep what given. With Tommy B., the husband who gets a $175 jacket or $120 jeans might well say “thats crazy, take it back!” Polo buyers, at least the B&T, are divided into ‘I finally found it in my size, better get it’ and ‘he’d like that, I’ll wait for a sale though’.

Bottom line, I think those buying in ‘quality’ area have the sort of ingrained buying habits Ms. Henderson mentions. Thats been good for me, and people do comment on price difference between $49 khakis for Nautica and $85 (Polo) and $92 (VV). The Tommy B. buyer seems to have ‘treated’ themselves to a higher end product early on, then continued buying when income wasn’t a concern. The Gen Yers I see will continue buying what Mom always got them in Nautica and add a cool shirt from VV (esp. if shopping with folks) but they aren’t getting 4 at $98 for sure.

Thanks to the author for a great article! As a Millenial, I have seen what a lack of frugal behavior by my parents’ generation has done. Why on earth should I emulate that, knowing that I’m going to have to work twice as hard to earn half of what they have blown through in their adult lives?! I think my generation is finally starting to realize the disastrous amount of debt, one of many problems, being left for us to deal with in the name of “progress”.

It seems easy for you Boomers to sit back and call us Millenials lazy and unmotivated, but did you ever stop to think your generation raised mine with the values it has, and we’re learning now how screwed that really makes us? Boomers created all of those video games and other time wasters to babysit your kids for you (and profited greatly from selling them to you), now they are lazy/disconnected and you are surprised? Celebrating mediocrity at every level throughout our childhoods (i.e. everybody has to get an award, have perfect self-esteem, etc.) and not setting higher expectations for achievement have effectively removed the motivation to achieve, because if I’m going to get a trophy/passing grade/diploma anyway…why bother putting in all the effort? All I’m saying is that everybody has their part to play in this and should take a good, long hard look in the mirror when it comes to placing blame on one generation or another.

They are right to be scared. The recession fundamentality changed how I approach buying and acquiring “stuff” in general. The huge house, multiple cars, big vacations my parents bought seem even more wasteful than they did before the recession (when they just seemed eco-unfriendly). My parents lost money in the crash, but it didn’t significantly change our lives. My siblings and I value completely different things than my parents did- we love small houses, consignment stores and budget shopping, used cars (preferably hybrid), bikes, cooking at home, renting instead of buying a house without a good downpayment, debit instead of credit.

The recession taught us that having more stuff doesn’t actually mean that you are rich- in fact it might mean that you are leveraged up to your eyeballs and in danger of total ruin at any second. That fear of risk will always be a part of our psyche because we saw so many people lose everything so quickly. On the plus side- my IRA is maxed out, my 21 year old sister has a maxed out Roth of her own money, my brother has thousands of dollars in savings and none of us spend beyond our limits (we are all under 30). On a recent trip my brother and I ended up paying for everything on our cards and accounts because our parents had failed to research whether their cards had foreign exchange fees or ATM charges. Even though we sent them three emails on the subject… My parents are well traveled too. It’s not a lack of experience, but I completely different mindset towards budgeting and wasteful fees. My grandmother who grew up in the depression and I have had fun trading gardening tips and biscuit recipes though ;) We get each other, even if she can’t understand why I want to know how to can in the 21st century.